Quotes from The Trumpet of the Swan

E.B. White ·  252 pages

Rating: (58.6K votes)


“Safety is all well and good: I prefer freedom.”
― E.B. White, quote from The Trumpet of the Swan


“The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens. And I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking.”
― E.B. White, quote from The Trumpet of the Swan


“Every night, before he turned in, he would write in the book. He wrote about things he had done, things he had seen, and thoughts he had had. Sometimes he drew a picture. He always ended by asking himself a question so he would have something to think about while falling asleep.”
― E.B. White, quote from The Trumpet of the Swan


“I shall begin a search for such a device, and if I have to go to the ends of the earth to find a trumpet for our young son, I shall find it at last and bring it home to Louis."
"Well, if I may make a suggestion," said his wife, "don't go to the ends of the earth, go to Billings, Montana. It's nearer.”
― E.B. White, quote from The Trumpet of the Swan


“Besides, my life is a catastrophe. It's a catastrophe to be without a voice.”
― E.B. White, quote from The Trumpet of the Swan



“The sky," he wrote on his slate, "is my living room. The woods are my parlor. The lonely lake is my bath. I can't remain behind a fence all my life.”
― E.B. White, quote from The Trumpet of the Swan


“Tonight I heard Louis's horn. My father heard it, too. The wind was right, and I could hear the notes of taps, just as darkness fell. There is nothing in all the world I like better than the trumpet of the swan.”
― E.B. White, quote from The Trumpet of the Swan


About the author

E.B. White
Born place: in Mount Vernon, NY, The United States
Born date July 11, 1899
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